"Backpacks" thread in "Staying Alive"
Just a quick mention of backpacks to our newer riders out there. A friend of mine was riding wearing a light backpack yesterday evening. They ...

Just a quick mention of backpacks to our newer riders out there.

A friend of mine was riding wearing a light backpack yesterday evening. They left the two zip tags at the top of the bag, and the bag managed to open itself at approximately 70mph, shedding clothes and stuff out of the back.

A pair of jeans managed to fall down to the left, and got entangled in the chain and rear wheel, leading to a fairly abrupt stop at the side of a dual carriageway, and one very shaken pilot.

Please folks, keep the zip tags right down the one side at the very least, or buy a bag with a drawstring, or get a crappy little padlock to keep the tags together.

It could have been so much worse.

If they were frosted denim they could have ended up a fashion victim.

Get's coat

Pleased they were OK. This is in teh same category as the 'insecure tailpack jams back wheel' incidents which got a lot of publicity a few years ago.

Personally I avoid rucksacks [attached to me, anyway] like the plague when biking. If I fall off I'd like a nice, "gentle" and uninterrupted slide down the road on my back for as many metres as it takes please - not getting flipped by a rucksack, and not getting flipped onto my front. Its a better plan than the alternatives, imho. All you have to do is tie it to the bike with binder twine or something

If I wanna use a rucksack I'll walk up a mountain with it

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Rubber Side Down
TFDodo
VFR750, CBR400
We've seen it all - Bonfires of trust, flashfloods of pain...

"you only get away with it
... until you don't"

What happened to putting stuff in a carrier bag and stuffing it down the front of your jacket?

I don't know you youngun's with your designer gear all we had was a couple of Bungees annd an old field jacket, course you could buy a decent bike then for ten quid and petrol was 1/6 a gallon and you could ride legally at 100mph from Liverpool to Manchester without seeing another car and still have change from an Ariel Red Hunter.

1) The front of my jacket is full already.
2) When I fall off I always land on my front so I'd want to be certain I didn't have any solid pointy objects in the bag.
Bungees? Don't you mean webbing straps from the Army and Navy Stores?

Hmmmm, couple of good points you have there I didn't think about lady bumps. Well not that exact second anyway.

Never'r guessed you're country folk from that there Brizzl . . .


Edit: I suppose the orange plastic twine is for KTMs?

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Argue with me: http://the-ride-info.blogspot.com/

Thee's got'm where thee casn't back'n hasn't? Thees put im where 'e dissn't oughta biss?

I have the disturbing feeling that some of you folk are not taking this seriously enough.

It's Friday mate. It's been a long week.

I was the victim of similar stupidity, except the only thing in my rucksack was my laptop. I stopped but there was nothing larger than a playing card left in one piece.

I now have a Kriega rucksack for short journeys and a tailpack for longer ones.

Ouch.

I know.. I'm not being serious. I'm just glad she's alive

On the contrary. TFD added some useful extras.

But if you want a list of dangers that biking presents, I'd say that crashing due to clothing wrapped around the wheel is low on the list.

Isadora Duncan might not have agreed, BTW

FWIW I've lost a scarf that fell off when not bungied on properly, a pizza (ditto - it was in a carrier bag, not on the back of a C90 in a box ), a very important letter that got lost along the M3 because I hadn't strapped down the pannier lid (soft panniers with buckles), and one day I made it 100yds along the road before the bag I hadn't bungied on eventually fell off.

Personally, I don't like wearing rucksacks while riding, and cringe when I see sports-bike pillions loaded up for an arctic expedition with all the camping gear in one huge bag.

I'm also careful about what I keep in my pockets, avoiding anything particularly solid or sharp; I've heard that landing on a 'coke' tin can be sufficient to smash a hip, and a pen in a jacket pocket can puncture a lung - I always carry a pen in 'leg' height pocket. I know a guy who cracked ribs when he landed on his mobile phone in a jacket pocket.

Similarly, carry tools (screwdrivers etc) in a rucksack may not be too wise either.

And don't forget that if bungy cord hooks slip they can cause nasty injuries, you're better off using tie-down/velcro/rachet straps or the plastic hook alternatives (they're cack to try and use, BTW). I know one guy who lost an eye on a bungy hook

But he was 7 and swinging on it from a bunk bed . . .

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Argue with me: http://the-ride-info.blogspot.com/